STAR DUST HOME (THE BOY ON THE MOON)
A pretty dramatic name but will do .
Usually when I'm creating my art, my mind is overflowing with emotions I want to deliver, however, sometimes I sit down on a rainy day , with watered plants, empty sink with no dishes, clean floors and a well fed dog. With everything done around me, I tell myself "It's a perfect time to draw. I sit on my sofa with my sketch book and a pencil only to realise that my mind is so blank like the piece of paper I'm looking at. It feels like the time froze, it's quiet, scary even, and that's the sign of my mind just deciding to lay back.
It might be chaotic having your mind over packed all the time , but it's also the source of my creative thinking that doesn't have an ON or OFF switch ( ironically it has a mind of it's own).However, with my mind clear I could think much more simpler which is not a bad thing, sometimes less is more. So I asked myself this very simple question 'where would I want to be right now?, or where I feel I am right now?'
and that's when it started..
I began with a sketch. Eventually my mind clicked while listening to music and I was unstoppable.
who is the boy?
what is he doing?
Well, when I was drawing this deeply planned out illustration, to be honest.... ( I didn't know) derp.. caugh...
I must say my creative self knows me better than I do. When creating this sketch all I had in my head was just the questions I asked myself, and that's when my mind and hand just worked on their own without barely explaining anything to me, around after they finish, I get feedback , I mean, they can at least write a letter or something before they go if they are in such a "hurry"!
so basically usually when creating an illustration, I'm not fully aware of what I'm doing..
any ways...
We jump to day 2!
useing my sketch from before as a gide I was ready to sketch out the actual piece. By that time, I started slowally realising what I was going for.
And here is my finished sketch that was ready for scanning
After that I decide to go for a tea break:) I just love this phrase "tea break" it's like another definition for "chillax" It's a combination of a word chill and relax :)
well after sipping on my tea, I realised I didn't draw the outlines on a separate layer and had to start again..
DERP... cough
Day 3 , Really getting in to it now.
I won't even say what I'm useing to draw on the computer..I'm a poor/ amateur artist, at least can I get a bonus for struggling. The only thing I can be proud of is the software Im using for this illustration which is Manga StudioEX 5 ( <3)
I started exploring with tools while managing layers.I put the shirt, trousers, shoes, hair, face, moon, just everything on each separate layer while doing the background last.
You know my derp level is over 9000 right? (DBZ reference)
Just listen to this, or read..
I finished, finally finished! I was happy with the results and saved it... yeah "saved it".
Because there was so much data to save, my laptop crashed down and shut the software... yup I lost everything.
All I had was just the picture you see of the boy above.
Don't get me wrong, I have to bear with myself everyday so the amount of times I lost hours of work is nothing new to me. My response is all ways " I will do it again, but better!"
But here... that was the first time I cried and had a break down. I didn't want to start again after all the effort; and I didn't want to leave it because it was even more painful knowing that I was done, finished! So my only option was to suffer and start again. As I calmed down, I had my burst of determination back. I didn't go to bed in till I was done!
And this is the finished piece, costed a lot of tears, possibly shorten my lifespan but It's beautiful..
You can read briefly what this illustration was about at the bottom if you want.
A boy on the moon. The boy became very weak but by connecting to the moon, he's still capable of keeping his creative self alive.We can imagine that if he disconects then his only creative source of energy that keeps him alive will shut too. Maby its hard to see but inside the moon, there are little boxes with named tags on them, there is TRUST, MEMORY, HOPE, STRENGTH , ENDURANCE and PAIN. Each of the boxes have little 3 lights attached with wires at the side. By looking at the lights, we can say what's the condition of each of the senses. For example TRUST has 1 orange light and 2 red once, this shows that the boy's ability to trust is poor but the ENDURANCE box has 2 orange lights and 1 green one which shows that his ability to keep going is not too bad.
We can see him holding a paint brush, painting stars with golden light that signifies hope. We can see the star being broken as the boy is faintly reaching out to hang the star on the hook, this shows the struggle of presuing your somtimes crumbled dream that's hard to reach and achieve, but can still make you happy and lighten you up. The space like scenery created this perfect imaginative atmospheric dream like vibe. I wouldn't say this image represent somthing sad. The moral of this picture is HOPE. The boy might have struggled a lot but he is not given up because he found his source of happyness and strength. If I would use one word to describe how this picture makes me feel, it would be comforting. But again, if you feel different about this image then I don't mind.
After spending days on this drawing I went to the kitchen and realised that the sink is full of dirty dishes again, great...
Hope you like the post, feedback would be helpful :)
This is PNY wishing you a good day (and saved work)